New Delhi (NVI) Unnecessary panic among people is causing rush outside hospitals, shortage of essential drugs and oxygen, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said today.
While addressing at National Media Centre, AIIMS chief Guleria said that misuse of oxygen is a major factor in the O2 shortage. “If the saturation is 94% or above, then there’s no need to worry,” Guleria said at the press briefing where other senior officials from Union Health Ministry also spoke.
Unnecessary panic among people causing rush outside hospitals, shortage of essential drugs and oxygen.
Misuse of oxygen is a major factor. If the saturation is 94% or above, then there’s no need to worry.
– Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS#Unite2FightCorona pic.twitter.com/y2Zr0iOwva
— PIB India (@PIB_India) April 26, 2021
Guleria’s comments came amid acute shortage of oxygen in the country with some states also reporting deaths due to the paucity.
Also present on the occasion, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said that Maharashtra has the highest active caseload with 7,00,207 active cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.
“Most of the States have crossed their highest reported daily cases during September last year,” he said.
Apart from that 14.19 crore total Covid doses have been administered in the country so far, Agarwal said, adding that 9.79 crore vaccine doses have been given to people above 45 years of age. Likewise, healthcare workers have been administered 92.98 lakh doses and 1.9 crore doses to frontline workers.
“12 States/UTs have administered vaccine doses to over 90% of healthcare workers. More than 50% of the people aged above 60 years, administered the first dose in 12 States and UTs,” the Joint Secretary said.
Among other details, Agarwal said the active caseload now stands at 28,13,658. Cumulative recoveries stood at 1,43,04,382 and total Covid fatalities at 1,95,123 fatalities.
In another key takeaway from the Health Ministry conference, the Centre said it’s time people start wearing masks inside their homes as well. The Government has also appealed to people not to panic over the current pandemic situation, saying “unnecessary panic is causing more harm than good.”
India has reported a record surge in daily cases- 3,52,991, also highest in the world- for the fifth straight day today, taking the overall caseload to 1.73 crore. The corona death toll in the country has reached 1.95 lakh with 2,812 deaths in the last 24 hours.
-ARK
